Ever purchased and installed used cabinets in a rental?

Question

Anyone have a positive experience purchasing used cabinets either from store displays or salvage groups who remove and sell cabinets, etc?

Jim K. · Answer

When it comes to kitchens, the more you know about cabinet design and construction, the more money you'll make figuring out how to reuse and recycle stuff you pick up cheap or free. DIYers can save an immense amount of money on kitchens and bathrooms in rental properties, while using materials that will last far longer and take a lot more abuse than what you usually find in these apartments when they're run by hands-off investors.

Most cases, I am my own salvage group. People love to brag about remodeling their kitchens. You can swoop in and get their old cabinets for a song. I too stop by the side of the road for cabinets that have been thrown away (and TV entertainment centers, bathroom vanities, chifforobes). It's amazing how nice a lot of the hardware that is used in cheap flat-pack particle board furniture often is. Knobs, pulls, hinges, slides.

It is very rare that I pay more than $3K for the materials to do a low C'class kitchen remodel. Most of that $3K is usually the new appliances and the tile we put in. Counters and cabinets usually come in at under $500 in materials costs, sometimes under $200. This does not happen without a fair bit of moderately skilled woodworking and tiling labor on my part.

Pat L. · Answer

Not exactly the same but I took out & replaced the entire 5 year old kitchen I did for my daughter.

She was tired of them & I immediately moved them to a unit in our 6-plex I was rehabbing. I made them fit & the rent went from $525 to $875.

here's the b4 aft pics...

Jill F. · Answer

All the time. I always have a  "what sizes I would use if I bought new and designed from scratch" plan for each kitchen. Then ANY time I see a good deal on used cabinets CHEAP, I pick them up; I stop the ol' mini-van if I see free ones on the side of the road.

When we get ready to set the cabinets in  a "new" kitchen I compare what I have to what I want and use as much as I can of what I have without sacrificing the overall design. I then buy unfinished pieces at HD to make up the rest and then have a tenant finish all with rustoleum cabinet transformation kits. The one other thing we do is we replace all hinges with invisible hinges; You can buy "non-morticed" invisibile hinges and add blocking to mount on the older style face frame cabinets we often find used. Invisible hinges give the kitchen a much more modern look.

Colleen F. · Answer

Yes, a couple of times.  You need to get dimensions of each cabinet. Dimensions of your space and appliances.  You then look at if the cabinets can be reconfigured to your space.  Works best when you have a bigger lot of cabinets then the space or when you can use as previously configured.  Also keep in mind you need  sufficient drawers.  Store displays are the best.  Little wear and often have upgrades.

David Mathews · Answer

@Jill Haselman

I've done it several times.  I've had great luck with it.  I usually paint mine white though.  I've done kitchen islands as well. I usually paint them something "different". Meaning I'll paint them as if they're an accent piece.  It turns out nice against the white wall cabinets.

Of course its difficult to get the exact measurements with used cabinets but if you're painting it's pretty easy to get them close then rip a filler stile where needed.  Once painted only you will know what you had to do to make it work.  Another thing I e done is pair a used set of cabinets with the home's original set. To make them match I had a cabinet shop build a few doors that matched the "new" used cabinets I added to the kitchen.  Again,  once painted they all went together.

Don Meinke · Answer

It CAN work very good.  Best if you measure each cabinet width and take time enough to lay it out on paper and make sure what you are buying fits the space you have to fill.

Found out once that wide cabinets from a huge sprawling kitchen is hard to fit back into a small space.

You can take a old set of solid wood cabinets and spray paint them white and looks good.

Best reclaim is new show room box's you can order 1 or2 more in right size to finish length correctly.

IF they are not box cabinets but custom built in place, better pass,they hardly ever come out right.  Box cabinets can be rearranged in different order and shape.

John Teachout · Answer

Tomorrow we'll be working on prepping old used upper cabinets to install in a rental we're refurbing. I got them from my sister's remodel. We just took what we had and fit them in the best we could. Later in the week we'll figure out the lower cabs. Once they have fresh paint on them and new counters on top, they'll look good enough.

Justin Tahilramani · Answer

@Jill Haselman - I'm sure that you could cobble some used cabinets together and make it look quite nice, but realistically a lot of the cost isn't isnt in the materials, it's in the labor. If you are doing it all yourself - you can likely save a lot of money. For most people time is money. The effort it would take to locate, pick-up, re-finish, etc would negate a lot of the savings.

Ever purchased and installed used cabinets in a rental?

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